Wilton's newest preschool aims at getting children outdoors

Published 8:00 pm, Friday, March 20, 2009

WILTON

By KARA O'CONNOR

Hour Staff Writer

Getting children into the great outdoors to help them appreciate and understand nature is what Wilton's newest preschool aims at doing, said Woodcock Nature Center's executive director, Henryk Teraszkiewicz.

In September of 2009, the center's Natural Worlds Preschool will open its doors to residents of Wilton and surrounding towns. The school will be housed inside the nature center's 140-acre preserve in north Wilton, and it will use a comprehensive blend of environmental education and play-based education.

Teraszkiewicz said the center has had summer camp for children since 1972 but in the past three years, the center has wanted to expand its education program even further.

"This idea has been in our heads for a very long time, and we finally decided it was the right time to go ahead and do it," said Teraszkiewicz. "We really want to share our mindset of incorporating learning with nature to the community and what better way to do that than by starting an year round school."

Head teacher and Redding resident Amy Taylor says the preschool will have all of the benchmarks that any other preschool would have in its curriculum, such as music, art and learning the alphabet, but will focus on intertwining the environment with those subjects.

"We will make sure the children learn everything that other early education schools teach, but we will do it our own way," she said. "We might have an art project on a certain animal or read books about nature. We just want to make sure the children get the right appreciation and outlook on the outdoors."

Taylor said she is very excited to teach at this new preschool because a lot of the class time will be held outdoors, not in front of a computer.

"I have found that most kids are glued to their computer or video game and not getting outside enough," she said. "We want to change that way of thinking from the earliest age possible."

Taylor says the preschool will have computers in the classrooms, but they will be used as little as possible and only as a teaching aide.

"Each child will not have their own computer because they won't need to," she said. "For example, we might use the computer to look up certain types of birds after a child saw one hiking on a trail."

The new preschool will put a lot of focus on teaching children the ability to explore and how to be creative, said Teraszkiewicz.

"We will have a curriculum each day for the children, so they have some kind of structure," he said. "But that day is not necessarily set in stone, so the kids have the opportunity to be creative and expand their minds."

The preschool will have classes for three year olds on Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and for four year olds on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Each class will consist of 14 students.

"We want children to learn, explore and grow all at the same time, and it can be done," said Teraszkiewicz. "It is possible to learn about the natural world within the school day. I think that if we start getting children to understand our environment at a young age, good things will come out of it when they are older."